Ponyoryx

haha! I'm totally in the camp of ho hum it's saturday...how bad is the mulm and maybe the plants would enjoy some fresh water 😂

Oh good point about the water. I forgot to bring that up. My partner is already in MD and we know the water is harder since we have our betta tank there (betta tax attached). I am worried about that transition. The betta handled it fine. I will drop acclimate the snails, but hopefully the fish won't need that? Any thoughts? And yes I totally feel you. Stress of moving is horrible, plus I need to start studying ASAP. I won't have any tinker time! It's going to be set and up go.

I agree, I really like the triangle and I think it will work well with the val! I am definitely going to grow it dense like it is in their current tank. They love to dive into it and wriggle around in there. I'll definitely save that scape idea! Also easy because I really only need to put aqua soil on one side of the tank. I really want to try a large java fern in the center of a piece of wood like that, but I'm worried it's going to die and a huge hunk gets expensive...

Well I think I got a little ahead of myself, because it occurred to me that I really need to plan the move for my 40gal before I get to into planning the 20gal. Cart before the horse, as they like to say. Any advice is welcome. I'll be moving in July and driving a UHaul 10 hours (Massachusetts to Maryland). Here's my basic plan as of now Fish: two goldfish, handful of ramshorns and possibly a few shrimp. Place all in home depot bucket with the lid. Drill hole in lid for USB air bubbler in a sponge filter Plants: Hanging plants roots wrapped in wet paper towel and in ziplock, but leaves exposed and placed in cardboard box there may be a safer way... Aquatic plants wrapped in wet paper towel in a ziplock and placed in a box Substrate: I'll filter out the sand and chuck it, but I'll save the flourite black and the pumice in ziplocks. I'll keep them for cycling the future build. Driftwood/sponges/etc: water tight container for sponges and items i plan on keeping in the tank to maintain the bacteria For the rescape, I want to keep it simple. I don't have the best luck growing plants with these two goldies. The jungle val and rotala (species??) did ok, but with a healthy amount of hair algae. The hanging plants are also veryyyy slow growing. The big leaves were from their previous lives in a pot. In this scape, I put root tabs below the flourite black and capped all with sand. I occasionally dosed the water column. I eventually gave up on the water dosing. All that to say, in the rescape I am going to get a bag of aquasoil and put it in netted bags (MD style), as well a few bags with the cycled pumice and fluorite black, and try to grow some of the following plants: Tiger lotus, rotala, crypts, amazon sword, Hornwort I love getting inspiration for future scapes, so if anyone has pictures of their favorite scape, please share!

oh exciting! I'm glad we're in it together. I can't physically start it until October at the earliest, so it's going to be quite the journey lol, but I am looking forward to the planning. I also have to get through a move with my 40 gallon goldfish tank...

I'm in a rigorous residency program and will be taking a boards exam in September. I'm currently working about 60 hours a week and studying in my free time. Come July, I will be studying 7 days a week. I need to have little nuggets along the way to keep me going, so I've decided that a little reward each day I'm studying is to research my future build - a 20g long that I want to be a planted tropical community tank. I am planning on putting everything together this fall once I get settled in my new home and job as a congratulations gift to myself. I've never planned a tank this complex, so I would love any advice along the way. I figured the best thing to do would be start with the stocking and plan the substrate, plants, decor and parameters around the creatures? I am just dying to get my hands on some panda cories and CPDs. I also really want to try to keep a robust and reproductive shrimp colony. I bought a few for my heavily planted fantail 40g figuring there were plenty of hiding places, but damn can those two hunt...huge mistake. I think I have one lone wolf (shrimp) remaining... The attached picture is a general idea of how I want to stock this tank. I'm not 100% certain about the compatibility of these species or how many of each to keep, but I think I've covered all levels of the aquarium. I could give or take the cardinal tetras, but I've heard great things about them. Once I decide my stocking plan, my future journal entries will be deciding other factors like substrate, plants, decor, stand, etc.

40gal for my two fantails! The plants are very slow growing, hair algae, diatom algae, lots of mulm. The snails don't seem to mind!

Will Oto's eat hair algae off plants? I've been considering getting a few for my planted 40gal. I have a decent amount of hair algae on the val, the tank has been set up for 7 months and there is a lot of surface area for biofilm. There is not much algae on the walls of the aquarium. I would love to grow more for them, but I'm worried if I turn up the lights to encourage algae, the hair algae will get worse.

That's a good point. I'll do no heater for now but probably use it if I add any new critters.

Hi everyone, I spontaneously put together this no tech bowl last night because a friend of mine brought home some discounted aquarium plants that needed some TLC. II found this bowl at a thrift store for $3 and have been holding onto it for just this! I added some plants and snails from my other setups as well. I am assuming the volume of the water is ~2gal. I should have measured before filling the bowl >< My plan is to keep this bowl strictly to rams horn snails (and maybe some shrimp once the bowl is more established, maybe a dwarf african frog??), but I'm worried about tank temperature. I live in New England, and I fear the water will reach temperatures in the high 50s-low 60s this coming winter. We try to minimally use our central heat because of gas costs in the winter here, so my room is usually around 58. I did install plastic window covers this year, so hopefully that helps! Does this forum think a tank heater is 100% necessary in this set up? I would hate to add tech to this bowl if I can avoid it. I did order one on amazon today assuming the answer is yes, but I can always return it 😉 I do plan on adding some more stem plants since I did make it a dirted bottom, and any other suggestions/comments are welcome!! Thanks! heater: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y9WNCJJ/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was just coming onto this forum to post about my mystery snail dying as well! I'm wondering if it was age because she was pretty large but also active when I got her a few months ago. Over the last few weeks she has been slowing down and I found her upside down yesterday 😞 I was worried it was my parameters, but they are fine and my rams horn and other mystery snails are also happy. I did read somewhere that mystery snails can get stuck upside down and die if they aren't righted fast enough...has anyone experienced this? Snail tax attached.

Thank you! I'm really liking the look. I think your advice may be correct that I need to black the top. I was hoping to avoid that... unfortunately there is just not an alternative spot to move the tank to right now. Not sure I'm ready for discus 😂

I was thinking an SAE! I'm worried the goldfish will eat the shrimp, but I think it's worth a shot. The light is aquaneat blue and white LED (specs in the pic).

What's your dosing schedule for the easy green? I also have a moderate/lightly planted tank and I'm still trying to figure out dosing

Hi all! I had terrible luck with my first planted tank (I did not do a great job planning from the start and take full blame 😂) - lots of algae blooms, terrible plant growth, snail deaths etc. I am planning on moving my two fantails to this 40gal breeder this weekend and I have been attempting to get started on the right foot here. I feel like I did everything right with the set up but I have such a hard time with ferts/high goldfish bioload/poor plant growth/hair algae. I do like some some algae, but I don't want it to out compete my plants or for them to grow sickly, which is what happened in my last tank. About the tank: 1 month old so far and seems to be pretty well cycled because I used sponge filters and media from the previous cycled tank. The plants seem to be settling nicely, but still "declaring" themselves with dead leaves here and there, tough to say if I see new growth besides the duckweed. ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates < 20 pH 7.2-7.4 phos 0 GH 6, KH 5 -- i just added a huge cuttle bone for my snails so this should hopefully go up Temp 75-77F (room temp) Filtration: two medium sponge filters and a HOB that I had on my 20gal originally and has bio media and sponges, no carbon Substrate: Fluorite dark mixed with ecocomplete + root tabs + sand cap (not very deep) Flora: mostly slow growers and low/med light plants (pothos, anubias, amazon swords, crypts, val, java moss), red root floaters, soon to be eaten duck weed Fauna: two 3inch fantails, 2 mystery snails, 2-3 large rams horns, many many rams horns/bladders all still baby size that my goldfish will definitely eat when added in Any other suggests for clean up crew would be welcome!! Maybe a few ottos????? My problem to you: I want to keep this tank as low maintenance as possible. I do not care about thick/fast plant growth, I just want the plants to be healthy. The tank is in front of a window but I have the back and sides of the tank blacked out and I have a light 5inches above the water currently on 10 hours/day. I have easy green, easy iron, and excel but I have NOT dosed anything yet. I would love to not dose any fertilizers at all, but I'm worried the algae will still out compete the plants because I'll lack micronutrients. Any advice on how to get started slowly with ferts or how long can I safely wait before adding any in? What signs should I look for before adding fertilizer? Thanks!